The invention relates to carpentry tools and in particular to a portable, adjustable guide tool for assuring a straight cut with a portable power saw.
Portable hand-held power saws, particularly circular-blade saws, are not easily guided in a straight path except by experienced carpenters. Even then, a perfectly straight cut cannot be achieved with strictly freehand motion.
Various types of guides or jigs for portable power saws have been proposed in order to guide a hand-held saw in a straight cutting path through a panel of wood or other material. See, for examle, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,677,399; 2,735,455; 2,735,456; and 3,124,176. However, guides such as these have generally involved elaborate clamping devices for gripping the panel to be cut, have required large tables for holding the panel, or have been cumbersome in setting the guiding straightedge at the correct location for making the cut. In some prior art saw guides, the portable saw had to be attached to a slidable component of the guide, and this was also time consuming and cumbersome.
Some of the objects of the present invention are to improve the manner in which such a saw guide tool is retained stationary with respect to the panel to be cut, to make the saw guide lightweight and easily portable, to facilitate adjustment of the tool for different widths of hand-held power saws, and to provide for quick set up of the tool. Additional objects are to enable the tool to be used with a variety of different widths or lengths of panels and to minimize fraying at the surface of the panel, where the sawblade teeth move upwardly through the surface in cutting.